Washing-machine.



IN VEN TOR.

Patented Jan. 28

H. NEUMANN.

WASHING MACHINE. Arrmouron Hmm MAB'. 11. 1912.

ATTORNEY.

u TED sTATEs PATENT OFFICE.

HENRY NEUMANN, OF ANDERSON, INDIANA.

wAsii-ING-MAGHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Patented Jan. 28,1913.

Application led March 141', 1912. Serial No. 683,676.'

To au whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY NEUMANN, a

subject of Emperor William of'the German a washing machine of -improved construc' tion.

The features of the invention lie in the means for rubbin the clothes and in the means for impartmg'an oscillatory motion thereto. y l

The nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanyingl drawings and the following description and claim.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a central longitudinal section through the device.

Fig. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of Fig..

1. Figs. 3 and 4 are plan views of the driving means showing the-levers in their extreme positions. Fi 5 is a plan view of one of the ratchet drives with the cover and shaft removed. Fig. 6 is a perspective view 4of the rubber. Fig. 7 is a detail of a portion of the clothes rubber driving shaft.

In detail, there is shown in the drawings a washing machine having a tub or washing chamber 10, with a cover 11, supported above a chamber containing the driving mechanism.4 An operating lever 12, fulcrumed at 13 upon a projection 14 from the'machine frame has a link 15 pivotally secured to its lower end, and the other end of said link is bifurcated and within this bifurcated end, connecting rods 16 are pivoted at right angles to the pivotal connection with the operating lever 12. The other end of said connectingrods 16 are pivotally secured to ratchets. 17 which surround the vertical driving shaft 18 carrying a fly-wheel 19 near its lower end and a gear 20 near its upper end. Said shaft has bearings in cross bars 21 and 22 secured to the frame of the machine. The gear 20 upon the shaft' 18 meshes with a gear 122 upon the lower end ofA a short shaft 23 having bearing in a bracket 24 secured to the underside ofthe tub porytion 1,0, and upon the upper end of said shaft there is a crank 25 with the outer end thereof pivotally connected to one end of a link 26, whose other end is pivotally connected to a lever 27 secured to the rubber operating shaft 28 extending upward into the washing chamber 10 and upon which a clothes rubber 29 is removably secured. The gear' 20 is materially larger than the gear 122 and the crank 25, link 26 and lever 27 are so designed that an oscillatory move- Eient is imparted to the shaft 28 and ruber 29.

The ratchets 17 are of the well known construction, in which there is an outer member 30 and an inner member 31 which is secured to the shaft 18 and with tapering grooves 32 cut into the outer member, and into said grooves rollers 33 are drop ed, which are of such diameter that when t e outer member 30 is moved in the direction of the arrow, as

shown in Fig. 5, the rollers will move in an opposite direction until they are pinched between the inner and outer members, thus binding them together, after which any further movement of the outer member will cause the inner member 31 and the shaft 18 to move with it. When the outer member is moved in an opposite direction, the rollers 33 will move to the largest part of the grooves 32, where they will barely touch the inner member 31 and will cause no gripping between the inner and outer members. As shown in Fig. 1, there are two of these ratchets 17, and preferably one operates in the opposite direction from the other, so that when the lever12 is pushed to the left, as shown in Fig. 1, one of the ratchets will drive the shaft 18, while upon the reverse movement of the levers 12 the other ratchet will drive the shaft, the first one remaining idle.

The rubber 29 before mentioned is substantially elliptical in cross section and tapers inward slightly from the bottom to the top. Said rubber 1s referably made of a sheet of metal secured to the top and bottom boards 34 and 35, respectively, and upon the sides ribs 36 are secured, whichare substantially triangular in cross section. Upon the bottom board 35 there are similar ribs 37 running radiall of the rubber. The tube 38 is secured to t e bottom of the ytub 10 and extends through a central opening in the bottom 35 of the rubber, and its upper end bears against a collar 39 secured to the top plate 34 and supports the rubber. The shaft 28 driven as before described, extends through said tube 38, and upon its upper end there is a squared portion 40, see Figs. 6 and' are readily apparent and it Will be seen that asv it oscillates there will be an alternating pull and push given to the clothes, similar "in a Way to the hand rubbing'upon the old style Wash board, and since the sides of the I' ribs 36 and 37 are tapered, there is' no chance Within said tub, and means for for them to grip and tear the articles being Washed. y

Iclaim as my invention:

In a washing machine, the combination with a tub, a vertical driven shaft' extending oscillatino' said shaft, of a rubber removablv mounted on said shaft and adapted to be operated thereby, said rubber constituting two substantially elliptical members spaced apart l the vlower being larger than the upper one, means joining said elliptical members, ,ribs on said joining means and radial ribs on the under side of said lower member whereby' when articles tobe Washed are placed in said tub they will lbe acted upon by the inclined outer surface of the rubber and the curved sides of thetub and by the under side 'of the rubber and the bottom of the tub.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto at'- ixed my signature in the presence of the Witnesses herein named. l

NEUMANN.

Witnesses G. H. BOINK, i E. I-I. MAYO. 

